Honeywell sees Azerbaijan as one of main growth drivers for its business

Wed 13 Mar 201906:04 GMT | 10:04 Local Time

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The US Honeywell company has already started to work on the project for modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery in Azerbaijan, Frans van Deursen, President of the Honeywell company for Turkey and Central Asia, told Trend.

Honeywell announced on Dec.6 that the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will use Honeywell UOP’s Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology to supply high-quality hydrogen as part of the modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery (HAOR) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

"We already started to work on the project. Currently we are in the design phase for our systems. At this time, construction contractors are implementing the refinery modernization, including work on the FCC and CCR Platforming units, and adding new Polybed PSA unit for hydrogen purification. They’re also in the process of adding new Penex and Ethermax units," Frans van Deursen said.

He went on to add that Azerbaijan, is an important part of Honeywell’s Turkey and Central Asia High Growth Region – these regions are expected to drive a majority of Honeywell’s growth in the next five years so they are very important to the company’s overall business strategy, and legacy of continued market outperformance.

"We opened our first Caspian region office in Baku in 2005, but have been supplying customers in Azerbaijan for more than four decades. For Azerbaijan, which has high volumes of petroleum and natural gas production and refining, alongside many other rapidly developing industries, the potential productivity and efficiency improvements offered by our technologies and services have become increasingly attractive. This is a very attractive proposition for Azerbaijan, where customers need world class solutions from a supplier they can engage with at a local level," said Frans van Deursen.

He pointed out that in the medium term, Azerbaijan’s economic performance will strengthen, fueled by natural gas exports and a moderate acceleration in domestic demand.

"Non-oil sector growth, which is expected to average 2.7% in the medium term, will benefit from stabilizing oil prices, rising market confidence, a gradual recovery in investment, and improvements in the banking sector. Azerbaijan will continue to be a strategic region for Honeywell in 2019 and beyond."

Currently, Baku Refinery is undergoing modernization, which will be completed in 2021. Following the modernization, the refinery’s capacity will increase from 6 million tons per year to 8 million tons per year, while its operational term will be extended until 2040.

The cost of modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery is estimated at around $2.2 billion.